The subject disclosure broadly relates to the art of transport vehicles and, more particularly, to a self-balancing vehicle suitable for transporting an associated cargo or payload over an uneven or discontinuous surface and a method of transporting the associated cargo using the same.
The subject matter of the present disclosure is capable of broad application and can be used in association with the transport of any suitably sized and/or weighted payloads, such as kitchen appliances, business or office equipment, and industrial machinery, for example. The subject matter of the present disclosure finds particular use and application in association with the transport of copy machines, printers, and sensitive and/or sophisticated equipment of other types and kinds, and specific reference is made herein with regard thereto. However, it is to be understood that the specific applications and uses shown and discussed herein are merely exemplary and that the same are not intended to be in any way limiting.
The current practice of transporting larger pieces of office equipment, such as copy machines and stand alone or network printers, for example, normally involves at least some amount of lifting and/or lowering the equipment. This is typically performed by delivery or service persons using manual physical effort. In many cases, such office equipment is loaded onto a two-wheeled cart or dolly and tilted back so that the weight of the equipment is carried on the two wheels of the cart. Even so, current practices of transporting such equipment and systems undesirably require substantial physical effort on the part of the transporting personnel, two or more of whom are often dispatched to transport the equipment.
Another disadvantage of current methods is that the complex and sophisticated equipment that is often being transported is usually unavoidably caused to experience certain undesirable conditions during transport. As an example, tilting a copy machine or printer on a two-wheeled dolly for transport often results in the spillage of toner and other consumables, which can negatively impact the performance and/or output of the equipment. Additionally, the machines and/or equipment often also experience undesirable loads or inputs during transport. This can be due to starting, stopping, bumps and other occurrences, which can impart impact loads on sensitive components. These types of inputs can result in further spillage of consumables, and can also cause components to deviate from pre-calibrated conditions or even become damaged.
What's more, both the physical difficulty and the magnitude of these undesirable inputs and conditions are greatly increased where the transport path involves traversing a discontinuous surface, such as a flight of stairs, for example. This situation is common in countries, including many European countries, in which older buildings that do not have elevators or lifts remain in use as residential, commercial or industrial buildings into which such equipment is commonly delivered.
It will be appreciated that the extent to which such inputs will be problematic for a given cargo will depend upon the type, kind and/or configuration of the product that is being transported. For example, complex and highly sensitive devices, such as electrophotographic equipment (e.g., copy machines and printers) can be subject to significant damage, such as component breakage, misalignment, loss of calibration and consumable spillage (e.g., toner spillage), for example, due to even minimal impact and other undesirable inputs. Whereas, less sophisticated equipment, such as kitchen appliances and industrial machinery, for example, may be less susceptible to issues such as misalignment, loss of calibration and spillage. However, these types of equipment and machinery too can benefit from improved handling and reduced impact loading, such as to minimize chipping and scratching of finished components, for example.
Devices have been developed that reduce the amount of the physical labor required to transport a piece of equipment up flights of stairs. Such devices commonly include an otherwise typical two-wheeled dolly or handcart that has powered endless belts disposed along the back support structure of the cart. In use, the transport personnel lean the dolly backward (along with the piece of equipment thereon) so that the powered track lays on and engages the stair treads. The powered track can then be energized such that the endless belt(s) assist in carrying the dolly and the equipment thereon up the stairs.
One difficulty with such arrangements, however, is that the dolly must be physically manipulated at the top and the bottom of each flight of stairs as well as being negotiated by hand around each landing therebetween. Thus, substantial physical effort remains, even with the benefit of the powered track. Another disadvantage is that such devices still require the equipment to be tilted or tipped. As such, the spilling and/or leakage of consumables remains an issue. Furthermore, to aid in engaging the stair treads, the endless belt(s) are often outfitted with grips or protrusions to catch on the tread. Unfortunately, the pitch or spacing of the grips is often different than the spacing of the stairs. In such cases, the use of the powered track can result in shock loads or inputs occurring at nearly each step. Thus, even with the use of the powered track to reduce the physical effort involved, shock loads and other undesirable inputs still unavoidably occur.
Further still, self-balancing devices have been developed that are well suited for transporting human beings over a variety of surface conditions. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,288,505; 6,302,230; 6,357,544; 6,367,817; 6,408,240; 6,538,411; 6,543,564; 6,561,294; 6,598,941; 6,651,763; 6,651,766; 6,779,621; 6,789,640; 6,796,396; 6,815,919; 6,827,163; 6,868,931; 6,874,591; 6,929,080 and 6,969,079; and U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 20020063006; 20030146025; 20040011573; 20040055795; 20040055796; 20040055804; 20040069543; 20050017733; 20050121866; 20050126832 and 20050236215, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. It will be appreciated that these transport devices are generally not well suited for traversing a discontinuous surfaces, such as a flight of stairs.
However, other transporting devices are known that can traverse discontinuous surfaces and can generally perform such tasks with a minimum of tipping or tilting and while undergoing few impacts, shock loads or other such undesirable inputs. Examples of such devices are shown a in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,701,965; 5,791,425; 5,971,091; 5,975,225; 6,223,104; 6,311,794; 6,332,103; 6,343,664; 6,405,816; 6,415,879; 6,443,250; 6,443,251; 6,553,271; 6,571,892; 6,575,539; 6,581,714; 6,615,938; 6,715,845; 6,799,649; 6,866,107 and 6,915,878; and U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 20040183272 and 20050034553, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. It will be recognized, however, that these self-balancing devices have largely been developed for use in transporting human beings and generally take the form of wheeled chairs. As such, there are numerous aspects of these devices which generally limit their application to human transport, and which substantially reduce the effectiveness of these devices for transporting equipment and other inanimate payloads.
One significant example of such an aspect relates to the ability of a human being to mount and dismount these known devices. That is, these self-balancing devices have been developed to remained generally upright under essentially all operational conditions. Accordingly, the human user typically mounts and dismounts (alone or with assistance) such a self-balancing device while the same is in a generally upright orientation. In some cases, the self-balancing device may be angled forward slightly to assist the user. However, tilting such a self-balancing transporter beyond a certain maximum angle can undesirably result in a cantilevered load condition that is outside the capability of the self-balancing transporter to correct. Issues related to such conditions, and devices for preventing the occurrence of such conditions or mitigating the effects thereof are disclosed in the. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,062,600; 6,386,576; and 6,547,026. As such, a generally upright orientation is normally maintained. As a result, such self-balancing devices are not well-suited for transferring (e.g., loading and/or unloading) relatively large and/or heavy objects, such as office equipment, for example, on to and off of the self-balancing devices.